Brandon Routh's Overlooked Sci-Fi Horror Movie Is Now Streaming For Free

Based on the trailer for Joseph Kahn's 2024 "Ick" — now streaming for free on Roku and Tubi along with Dennis Quaid's forgotten 2000 sci-fi — which shows a wacky and campy throwback to the zeitgeist of the aughts' silly horror comedies, everybody would wonder how this film didn't become a popular genre favorite. It has an irresistible nostalgic appeal, a lot of goo and gore, and a cast that's more than game to ridicule their stereotypical characters. Then you watch the actual movie, and it all makes sense: This isn't a proper, fully rounded film, but a 90-minute music video without legitimate plot points, character development, or a director who has the vaguest idea of what they're doing.

"Ick" follows once-promising quarterback and high-school sweetheart turned science teacher Hank Wallace (Brandon Routh) — whose flashy life story from the early 2000s to the present day, condensed in an electrifying montage, is by far the most inspired part of the film — after his career breaks in half just when his leg does. His hometown of Eastbrook is littered with a gross plant the locals have dubbed "ick," a presumably benign parasitic organism that, for some inexplicable reason, everybody ignores instead of getting rid of.

Hank believes it's the very thing that derailed his life, essentially turning him into a pathetic loser and alcoholic, and we know he's right. As opposed to what every other soul thinks in Eastbrook, the ick has been gradually consuming their city, and now it's ready to devour them, too. Hank figures out it's only active in the dark and becomes stagnant under UV light, which comes in handy when it infects the townsfolk and turns them into vicious zombies he needs to stop, while also figuring out whether one of his students is his daughter from the girl he dated back in the day.

From the get-go, it's crystal-clear what director Kahn (who co-wrote the script with Dan Koontz and Samuel Laskey) is going for here, but simply can't get to despite his best efforts. The blatantly obvious sign of that early on is that his film is lacking basic plot points. There's no transition (or any explanation whatsoever) for why or how the people of Eastbrook get infected by the ick — they just simply are at one point, which makes the viewer wonder if they missed a key scene somehow. The plot of "Ick" doesn't unfold, but rather happens through disjointed sequences piling up on each other. There's no conflict or drama, but a set of characters who are oblivious to what's happening around (and to) them, except for Hank. Kahn attempts to play this as a deliberate joke we should be in on, but it's so baffling and unfunny that it achieves the opposite effect.

The characters live their lives unbothered — partying, dating, having inept conversations — by the blood-soaked chaos that happens next to them, which oftentimes kills them in the process. Kahn and Co. are nowhere near skillful enough to turn this into the satire that "Ick" sometimes screamingly wants to be, without ever taking the leap. So it remains a bafflingly stupid horror-comedy (much like these movies on Syfy) with mediocre CGI, ineffective action sequences, and uninspired set pieces that are so dull they could take place in the background. For the most part, "Ick" feels like a movie designed for second screening since there's nothing or no one to be invested in — you just occasionally glance at it to see who hasn't died yet before going back to being on your phone.

Leaning heavily into its 2000s aesthetic and frequent pop culture references, "Ick" delivers its best moments while romanticizing the past. Mena Suvari is clearly here as Hank's sweetheart because of her association with such classic raunchy rom-coms as "American Pie" and "Loser," which signals the kind of throwbacks you can expect throughout. The peak of that is undoubtedly the spot-on needle drops, from Wheatus' "Teenage Dirtbag" to Hoobastank's "The Reason" and Creed's "One Last Breath," that perfectly encapsulate the slightly ironic vibe that "Ick" is going for. Yet at the same time, these songs feel too good for a movie that uses them so cheesily, often mining them for overused jokes highlighting the generational gap between Gen Z and their Millennial parents. But you take what you can get in a movie like this to make the watch at least somewhat pleasurable.

Overall, it's easy to see why "Ick" was instantly dismissed upon release two years ago (frankly, its largely positive reception among critics on Rotten Tomatoes is quite surprising), and how it flunked its chances to become a much more entertaining horror comedy than it turned out to be. But since it's now streaming for free on several platforms, you have nothing to lose by putting it on and seeing for yourself if it's worth your time at all.